Actor

This section provides an overview of the TrailBlazer actor's properties that affect the pathfinding logic and debugging.

Grid

Property	Type	Description
Cell Size	Integer	Defines the dimensions of each individual cell within the grid used for pathfinding.
Num Columns	Integer	Specifies the number of columns in the grid. Increasing this value expands the grids width.
Num Rows	Integer	Specifies the number of rows in the grid. Increasing this value expands the grids depth.
Grid Height	Float	Specifies the vertical scope of the grid. Obstructions beyond this range will not be detected.
Use Actors As Cells	Boolean	When activated, actors of a designated type will define the walkable area.
Actor Type As Cell	TSubclassOf	Defines an actor type that will be used to define the walkable area.
Heuristic Type	Enumeration	Selects the type of heuristic algorithm used for calculating the pathfinding cost. Different heuristics can affect the efficiency and path quality.
Weight	Float	Applies a weight to the Euclidean distance in the pathfinding calculation, influencing how straight or direct paths are.
Include Diagonals	Boolean	This setting enables diagonal movements in pathfinding, offering a balance between simplicity and coverage. It is the most performant option.
Use Sperical Precision	Boolean	When enabled, this mode takes spherical shapes into account during obstacle detection. This setting is useful for environments with round obstacles like spheres or cylinders, providing more accurate paths around such shapes. However, this increased precision comes with a moderate performance cost on game start.
Use Rectangular Precision	Boolean	This is the most detailed and performance-intensive mode during obstacle detection on game start. It considers the rotation obstacles, allowing for precise pathfinding around irregularly shaped and rotated objects. This mode is ideal for complex environments with non-axis aligned or intricately shaped obstacles. WARNING: This option can significantly increase load times due to its highly intensive calculations.
Add Cell Buffer	Boolean	Enables a buffer zone around each cell, marking nearby cells as unwalkable to create a safer path.
Buffer Distance	Integer	Sets the size of the buffer zone around obstacles, defined as the number of cells. Larger values increase the clearance around obstacles.
Smooth Turns	Boolean	Activates path smoothing to reduce sharp turns, making movement along the path more natural.
Smoothing Interpolation Points	Integer	Determines the number of points used to smooth out turns along the path. Higher values result in smoother paths but may affect performance.
Smoothing Angle Threshold	Float	Sets the angle threshold for smoothing. Turns sharper than this angle will be smoothed out.

Heuristic Types

Type	Description
Chebyshev	Considers the maximum of the absolute differences of the Cartesian coordinates. It's effective for grids allowing diagonal movement, as it treats horizontal, vertical, and diagonal moves as having equal cost.
Euclidean	Measures the straight-line distance between two points in the grid. This is the most direct and shortest path but may not always be the most efficient in terms of path cost or real-world navigation.
Weighted Euclidean	Similar to Euclidean, but with a weight multiplier applied. This emphasizes straight-line paths, making them more favorable in the pathfinding calculation, often leading to more direct routes.
Manhattan	Calculates the sum of the absolute differences of the Cartesian coordinates. Ideal for grid-based maps where movement is typically restricted to horizontal and vertical directions (like city blocks).
Manhattan Euclidean	A hybrid approach that averages Manhattan and Euclidean distances. This can provide a balance between direct paths and path costs, especially in less restricted grid environments.
Tie-Breaking Euclidean	Adds a small cost to the standard Euclidean heuristic to help break ties between paths of equal length. This can be useful in reducing the number of nodes explored and ensuring more deterministic pathfinding.

Obstacles

Property	Type	Description
Ignore All Obstacles	Boolean	If enabled, the pathfinding algorithm will ignore all obstacles, allowing free movement across the grid.
Obstacle Types To Exclude	Array of TSubclassOf	Defines a list of actor types that should be ignored as obstacles, allowing paths to pass through them.
Obstacles To Exclude	Array of AActor*	Specifies individual actors to be excluded from being considered as obstacles in path calculations.

Tracing

Property	Type	Description
Adjust Path To Landscape Height	Boolean	When enabled, adjusts the path's height to match the landscape's contour, useful for uneven terrain.
Trace Extent Z	Float	Determines the vertical range for landscape height adjustments during path calculations.
Actors To Exclude	Array of AActor*	Additional actors to exclude from height tracing.

Debug

Property	Type	Description
Show Grid Cells	Boolean	Display the grid cells in the game world for debugging purposes.
Show Grid Extent	Boolean	Display the grid extent in the game world for debugging purposes.
Grid Decal Extent	Float	READONLY: This variable is set to a value that mirrors the current grid height and ensures that the grid cells will always be visible when debugging.
Show Path Locations	Boolean	Display calculated path locations in the game world for debugging.
Show Path Life Time	Float	Lifetime of the visual representation of the path. Increase for longer-lasting paths.
Path Particles Scale	Float	Scale of the particles used to visualize the path.
Show Path Movement	Boolean	Visualize the movement along the path for debugging.